Hmmm ... except the two mistakes are wholly different in the 'severity' of the error.
Sirius was one supposed Death Eater out of tens or hundreds. Making a mistake and saying that Sirius was (also) a Slytherin is a case of incorrectly attributing the House of one Death Eater out of many. If there were a hundred Death Eaters then Hagrid's error rate, the 'gravity' of his mistake in this case, was something like one percent. A mistake that's easy to make. Almost negligible, we get the idea, practically all the bad guys are Slytherins.
But the James/Lily thing - that's specific. It's a fact that's tailored to those two and no-one else. Impossible to get wrong unless you're really really stupid.
In terms of (a) the probability of making the mistake and (b) the 'incorrectness' of the mistake I think the thing with Sirius is much more condonable, acceptable, understandable and possible than the one about James and Lily being Head students.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-05-20 04:19 am (UTC)Sirius was one supposed Death Eater out of tens or hundreds. Making a mistake and saying that Sirius was (also) a Slytherin is a case of incorrectly attributing the House of one Death Eater out of many. If there were a hundred Death Eaters then Hagrid's error rate, the 'gravity' of his mistake in this case, was something like one percent. A mistake that's easy to make. Almost negligible, we get the idea, practically all the bad guys are Slytherins.
But the James/Lily thing - that's specific. It's a fact that's tailored to those two and no-one else. Impossible to get wrong unless you're really really stupid.
In terms of (a) the probability of making the mistake and (b) the 'incorrectness' of the mistake I think the thing with Sirius is much more condonable, acceptable, understandable and possible than the one about James and Lily being Head students.